This month Nikki Stevenson and I have been podcasting through Ephesians 2:1–10, and I have been overwhelmed at what is ours because Jesus came as the incarnate God the Son. It’s strange how glibly I could have said many right words about Jesus’ coming when I was an Adventist, yet I had no idea of the truth of this mystery.
I want to share some of the truths about Christmas that I have seen more clearly these past four weeks than I had seen before—and these truths involve the message and ministry of the other miraculous baby that preceded Jesus by a few months: John the Baptist—the forerunner of our Lord Jesus.
For several years I have marveled at the witness to Jesus’ identity that God gave the world before Jesus was born: Elizabeth and the unborn John, both filled with the Holy Spirit, recognized their Lord when the pregnant Mary walked into Elizabeth’s house (Lk. 1:39–45).
The baby boy, still developing inside his mother, was WORSHIPING his Savior!
What I realized this year was that when the unborn John leaped in Elizabeth’s womb at the entrance of his unborn Lord, he wasn’t merely delivering a God-given confirmation of Jesus’ identity as the promised Savior. The baby boy, still developing inside his mother, was WORSHIPING his Savior!
Months before, while John’s father Zacharias had been serving his appointed duty as a priest in the temple, an angel of the Lord appeared and announced that he and his barren wife Elizabeth would have a son. He would not simply be an ordinary boy; the angel told Zacharias his son would fulfill prophecy.
But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John. And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, for he will be great before the Lord. And he must not drink wine or strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb. And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared” (Luke 1:13–17).
John would be the fulfillment of Malachi 4:6. God chose him to be the one who would go before His Messiah, the “Elijah” who would call Israel to repentance to “make ready a people prepared for the Lord”!
Just a few months later, John had his first assignment as the forerunner. Filled with the Holy Spirit in Elizabeth’s womb (Lk. 1:15), John recognized the unborn Lord Jesus, and he worshiped Him. Moreover, this singular recognition between two unborn babies was recorded in God’s eternal word as an eternal witness of Jesus’ true identity. That moment confirmed John’s assignment as Jesus’ forerunner, the one who would introduce the Savior to Israel, and concurrently that moment confirmed that God the Son had taken the form of a developing human baby, and as God He received the worship of both John and his mother Elizabeth who prophesied as her baby leaped!
Announcing the Lamb of God
After John’s birth we don’t hear from him again until about three decades passed. We find the rest of the story in the gospel written by another John—Jesus’ apostle—who includes John the Baptist in the first chapter of his introduction of the Lord Jesus. We learn that John the Baptist knew his God-appointed duty and identity, and when the Jews heard him preaching and asked what he had to say about himself, he answered:
“I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as the prophet Isaiah said.”
(Now they had been sent from the Pharisees.) They asked him, “Then why are you baptizing, if you are neither the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?” John answered them, “I baptize with water, but among you stands one you do not know, even he who comes after me, the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie” (John 1:23–27).
John understood that he had been foretold in Scripture—and that his job was lonely and specific as prophesied in Isaiah 40:3. He was the voice in the wilderness calling Israel to repentance. His job was to “make straight the way of the Lord.”
He even knew that the One whom he was announcing was Yahweh. He told the curious Jews that One was already among them—One they did not know but who was so great that John was not worthy to untie His sandal (Jn. 1:27).
The day after John told the Jews that the unknown One was already among them,
he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! This is he of whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who ranks before me, because he was before me.’ I myself did not know him, but for this purpose I came baptizing with water, that he might be revealed to Israel.” And John bore witness: “I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God” (John 1:29–34).
I had not noticed before recently what specific things John knew and did. This story is so familiar that the words had blurred into a general “shape” in my head, and the things we know about Jesus because of John had simply not registered in my mind.
First, John called Jesus “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” Of course I knew those words, but I had not thought about what they would have meant to the Jews who heard him.
Israel knew about God’s lambs. From Abraham and Isaac on Mt. Moriah when God provided a ram for the sacrifice through the entire history of the nation as spotless lambs were sacrificed every Day of Atonement, Israel knew that God’s lambs were required for the atonement of their sin.
When John the Baptist came announcing the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, the Jews understood his words. They knew the prophecies of a Messiah who would cleanse the nation and remove sin. They knew from their own temple sacrifices that the person John announced was God’s Sacrifice, and this Lamb would not only cleanse Israel but the world!
John clearly declared that Jesus was God. Jesus outranked John because He existed before John.
John made his announcement even more specific when he said, “After me comes a man who ranks before me, because he was before me.” John clearly declared that Jesus was God. Jesus outranked John because He existed before John.
To any Jew who had ears to hear, the announcement that Jesus was God’s Lamb who takes away the world’s sin coupled with the Baptist’s declaration that Jesus was greater than he because he was before him clearly stated that this Man was worthy of worship—and only God receives worship!
And then we have John’s unequivocal declaration of Jesus’ identity. He tells the Jews that he had come baptizing so that Jesus “might be revealed to Israel”. He explained this otherwise confusing statement by telling them that God had sent him to baptize, and that God had told him that when Jesus came, John would know Him because the Spirit would descend on Him from heaven.
In fact, John quoted God’s words to him: “He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.” And then he said plainly: “And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God.”
What I didn’t know as an Adventist
As an Adventist I did not realize what John the Baptist told the world. He was the last Old Testament prophet God sent to Israel (Lk. 16:16) before His final word came, the prophet like Moses (Deut. 18:15) who would fulfill the Mosaic covenant and usher in the new covenant! John had a completely unique message: he came to Israel to introduce their Messiah. He came to call them to repentance and to reveal the One for whom they had been waiting. He revealed that Jesus came to Israel to die for for them—the Lamb of God who would remove not just their sin but the sin of the world!
And, as if these revelations were not enough to identify Jesus as God the Son, John directly testified to his fellow Israelites, “And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God.”
John the Baptist delivered an eternal message recorded in God’s living, eternal word. As an Adventist I had this word, but I had a worldview shaped by Ellen White’s Great Controversy that kept me from seeing the truth.
I believed that Jesus came without any advantage I didn’t have.
I believed that Jesus came without any advantage I didn’t have. I believed that Jesus inherited Mary’s sinful gene pool and propensities to sin, and as a man, he demonstrated that I, too, could avoid sin by praying hard. I believed that Jesus gave up some of his God powers in order to live as a human in a fallen world, and I believed that He came to vindicate the law and uphold it as my eternal standard of righteousness. After all, if Jesus could do it, I could, too.
This Adventist weak Jesus did not come to die to propitiate for my sin. If I thought about His death at all, it was part of His demonstration of perfection. Because He managed not to sin, He could tolerate the unbearable persecution of crucifixion and show me that I didn’t have to die eternally because He had revealed the way of perfect obedience. His death was more “representative” and less “substitutionary”.
In my Adventism, I completely missed what John the Baptist said. The unborn baby who worshiped His unborn Savior and witnessed to the world that Mary’s child was fully God grew to be the man who introduced the promised Messiah to Israel!
As the forerunner of the Lord Christ, John the Baptist announced that Jesus had come to die. He came as the prophets had promised, and He was the Son of God!
There was no diminishment of divinity in the Lord Jesus. His identity had been prophesied and was unmistakeable to those who had eyes to see and ears to hear. My Adventist eyes and ears did not perceive what John the Baptist so clearly declared.
As an Adventist, I understood Christmas to be about a baby—a sweet story of tenderness and humility and pity for mankind. Now, as a daughter of God, I see Christmas to be the promised rescue of the world in the person of God the Son. He was born sinless, spiritually alive, and He was born to die.
He came as a baby so He could be truly human in the domain of darkness, but His spirit was never dead in sin. He lived as a spiritually alive, sinless man and died a human death—the only way to pay for human sin.
He was the Lamb of God who was the only One who could take away the sin of the world.
He was the Lamb of God who was the only One who could take away the sin of the world. His death was sufficient to pay for human sin, and His resurrection was the proof that His blood was enough.
This Christmas, surrounded by the unresolved mess of a pandemic and a contested election, I am not merely celebrating the birth of a baby surrounded by lowing cattle on a starry night. I am celebrating the arrival of the incarnate Son of God who identified with us forever, who bled for our sins and delivered us from death.
I’m also thanking God for the gift of John the Baptist who was the first one to worship the Lord Jesus and the one who introduced Him to the world. His words remain alive in Scripture, and for all who have eyes to see and ears to hear, the truth of Jesus is clear.
This Christmas I worship the Lamb of God, the Baby who smuggled life into the domain of darkness to rescue me from my sin. I thank my Father for giving me life through Him, and I praise Him for His Spirit who indwells me. †
“I myself have seen, and have testified that this is the Son of God” (Jn. 1:34).
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Worthy is the Lamb! Thank you for your edifying essays.